Saturday, 13 April 2013

From Jen's Journal: The Rings of Akhaten

I know this is really late to be posting this review, but I still wanted to go through the top questions this episode brings to the table before the next one.

This episode, for me, was a little bit hard to follow. Not that the plot was confusing, because the plot was very basic, I just felt some details I feel were missing, and that the insignificant details constantly thrown at us became a bit confusing.

The music of this episode, I do have to say, was much better than the actual episode itself. I know not many people will agree, but I thought the little girl's voice was beautiful. It definitely added to the intense scenes of the episode.

My favourite part of this episode had to have been the Doctor's speech. Although I'm not so sure if it was actually called for.

That being said, here are 5 observations and questions I have found for this episode. I said I would do 10 every episode, but to be honest - this one didn't have much of a plot to begin with.

1) Looking back on the TARDIS wiki, it brings up the fact the 5th of March 2005 was the day the Doctor met Rose. Is there something behind how dates in her life correspond to other important Doctor Who dates? Who am I kidding, of course there is. The real question is what exactly?

2) Clara mentions in the episode that the TARDIS doesn't like her. The TARDIS has never not liked a companion of the Doctor's? Is she a big paradox? On that note, why did the TARDIS not translate the languages for Clara? Or is that just another inconsistency that comes with different writers?

3) The leaf Clara offered to the "parasite god" disappeared when she gave it up. What will happen to the memories the "parasite God" took from the Doctor? Will he still have them or were they taken as well?

4) After The Doctor watches Clara grieving at her mother's grave, he sees in his TARDIS a whole slideshow of Clara's life's moments. Are these pictures from the version of Clara we see now?

5) Clara says she remembers seeing the Doctor at her mother's grave, however we don't see Clara notice the Doctor then. All we see from that scene is Clara facing her mother's grave and the Doctor behind a tree. In the episode preview though, Clara has an entire conversation with the Doctor. We also see the Doctor running into Clara's mother, and her mother introducing him to a very young Clara. How come Clara doesn't remember him from other points in her life, but only from her mother's grave?

On another note, did anyone else notice how young they managed to make Jenna look for the mother's-grave scene? I thought that was a bit impressive.

As a whole, I thought this episode had a really great concept. The way it played out, however, was poorly done. I had to watch it a few times to understand exactly what the heck had just happened, which turned out to be not that much at all. I would probably give this episode 5/10 because I really can't decide whether I actually liked it or not.

Feel free to comment below with your opinions, or other questions I may have missed!

Hey, don't diss "Victory of the Daleks", I liked that one. :P Worst episode since "Curse of the Black Spot", more like. Speaking of which: I hope the episode wholly set inside the TARDIS won't suck. Would be a sad waste of potential...

All of your points are spot on what I thought! I have not watched the Cold War yet. I am really expecting better than the last two episodes. The first one was not to shabby, a little "uneventful", but i liked it pretty well. However, the Rings of Atkahatan (sp?) I just thought was very lacking. I loved the compassion the Doctor had towards the little girl and his promise to her, but....the rest was blah... I *really* love Clara, so I hope they write the episodes better in the future!

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